Thursday, February 06, 2014

You Have To Sweat the Small Stuff

We’re a Silicon Valley company, so we have a
very full kitchen. I hired a new head of business operations, and she
decided we were going to switch out the vendors. There was a week when
the supply went very low because the next vendor was coming in a couple
of weeks later to kind of set up. Because we hadn’t said anything about
it, and the food was starting to run low, people started saying,
“There’s layoffs coming; bad things are going to happen.” I
actually had to say in an all-hands meeting, “Guys, it’s just the nuts
in the kitchen. That’s it.” But people look for symbols, and they look
for meaning where maybe there isn’t any. So now we’re overcommunicating.
You have to talk about the little stuff as well as the big stuff, just
to make sure folks aren’t running away with ideas.

I can't stress this enough... if you leave an information vacuum in your organization, people will fill it... often with unfounded rumors and speculation. That's why sweating the small stuff, and leaning toward "over-communication", is essential if you are a leader. People will interpret actions based on their own worries and concerns, and they will infer important meaning even when you deem certain issues and actions largely inconsequential. Remember that all eyes are on you as a leader. You may not intend to signal or engage in symbolism, but people are taking away meaning from even the seemingly small actions and issues that you may not think warrant much of your time and attention.

1 comment:

"if you leave an information vacuum in your organization, people will fill it... often with unfounded rumors and speculation..."

Excellent, excellent, excellent point. I've never heard it said so clearly, thank you very much for posting this. My experience shows you are 100% correct, and that many leaders do not realize what happens in the information vacuum. Please keep teaching this, it is a lesson sorely missing in Corporate America today!

Michael Roberto

The Great Courses

About Me

I am the Trustee Professor of Management at Bryant University in Smithfield, RI. I joined the faculty after serving for six years on the faculty at Harvard Business School.

My research, teaching, and consulting focuses on leadership, with a particular emphasis on decision-making and teams. I have published two books based upon my research: Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes For An Answer (2nd edition to be released in May 2013), and Know What You Don't Know (2009).